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Out of all the resources used to build homes and other structures, wood is number one. It’s also the same when it comes to fantasy. How can wood be number one when you’re making fictional buildings when you have so many other options at your disposal? The answer to that is fantasy sawmills.
Lumber mills, as they’re also known, exist primarily to convert wood cut from trees into boards of wood to be used for many projects in the real world. Their fantasy counterparts do the same thing though they don’t appear in the story. Instead they’re mostly used for worldbuilding purposes since having them helps make worlds feel a tad more realistic.
With many worlds set in medieval times, besides stone, wood is a very common resource used to build structures. Their close proximity to forests means fantasy sawmills are active throughout the year since building homes and other buildings require a lot of wood from beginning to end. The larger the forest, the more sawmills have to work with.
Many towns across the genre were built with wood and other resources but mostly the former. While you may see wood on their exterior like beams or doors, nearly all structures feature wood in their interior, namely their walls and so on. This is because wood is easy to work with though it requires precise measurements for the buildings to be accurate to the blueprints.
The importance of fantasy sawmills to the world cannot be understated. Without them, homes and towns would take longer to build and the wood used would have to be manually cut by hand and smoothed out, piece by piece. Sawmills expedite the process, drastically decreasing the build time which leads to more homes and other buildings being created in a short amount of time.
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The cardinal rule of fantasy sawmills is that they have to be located either right next to forests or in close proximity to them. The reason for this is that many medieval worlds don’t have the technology like the real world when it comes to transporting goods. Instead of planes and trucks, they have to rely on horses and in some cases, magic.
To decrease the transport times, lumber mills establish their operations next to a forest. But not just any forest will do. Rather it has to be a certain size so that they don’t wind up chopping down every tree, leading to deforestation. To prevent deforestation, smart companies plant a sapling for each tree they cut down, thereby ensuring a constant source of wood that they can use for a very long time.
Forests appear in many areas across the world. Trees like being close to water which is why you see many forests around lakes, rivers, streams, and seas. In regard to climate, they span several climate zones like temperate and the tundra. The type of trees that flourish depends greatly on the zone they’re in so be mindful of that when you’re thinking about placing a sawmill by them!
Forests have a deep diversity of trees such as pine and oak. Each type has a different texture and has different applications and when they’re delivered to lumber mills, the workers separate them by type. This helps prevent them being mixed up when they’re delivered to their customers who may just want a particular type of wood.
Fantasy sawmills primarily operate all year long, as long as they have power. Since many worlds take place in medieval times, their power sources are limited to watermills, windmills, and so on. Don’t forget to take this into consideration when you’re working on bringing them into your world since its technological level and type of power sources will heavily dictate how the lumber mills are powered. The last thing you want is to have them be powered by a source that doesn’t remotely fit in your world which can alienate some readers.
Besides stone, wood is used in the process of building a structure whether it be a home or a business. Even in fictional worlds, the boards of wood used need to be standardized so that there’s consistency in building things. That’s where fantasy sawmills come in.
Lumber mills in fantasy are usually located not too far away from urban centers. This is because they’re dependent on the local workforce to cut and prepare the wood for the projects they’re needed for. You wouldn’t want every building in your world to be built using different processes, would you?
In nearly every building project, a bunch of wood is used throughout from beginning to end. Several noteworthy steps like the framing of the building require a generous amount of wood for the floor, walls, and so on. This helps ensure consistency across all buildings so that whatever issues arise can be easily taken care of before moving onto the next step.
All that wood and it’s just for one building! Imagine how much you would need in order to create an entire town! That’s where fantasy sawmills come in. They produce wood that they ship to their customers and whatever’s left sits in their inventories waiting to be delivered which usually doesn’t wind up taking long.
Building a town in a fantasy medieval world is unlike that of the real world. Besides having to deal with malicious sorcerers and dragons, construction workers don’t have access to the technology we have like power drills or air conditioning. Consequently, it takes longer to build a structure from start to end and the same holds true for a town.
As you can probably guess, with how much wood is used in building towns, fantasy sawmills are integral to the world, both to the kingdoms they have operations in and worldbuilding at large. It’s something not many people take the time to think about.
Nevertheless, when you’re creating an imaginary world from the bottom up, it’s imperative that you don’t just look at the surface level of it. Diving deep into it gives you a treasure trove of knowledge that you can use to make your world not only feel real but makes it easy for your audience to immerse themselves in.
With how much demand there is for wood, fantasy sawmills exist to supply it which is why they set up shop near forests or other areas where there are a lot of trees. To handle the demand, they need a sizable workforce which they recruit from those who live not too far from them. Furthermore, lumber mills also need people to transport their finished products to their customers and in a timely manner.
As demand for wood grows, lumber mills grow alongside them. They expand their operations by adding more workers and planting more trees which they’ll cut down in the future. The larger they get, the more power they amass over time.
Due to the importance of wood in the medieval economy, fantasy sawmills wield a lot of clout in the realm. As one of the top manufacturing group of companies in the kingdom, they use their power to make deals that they can profit from or cajole politicians to support their aims by offering them riches or a sweetheart deal.
Though sawmills may have seasonal ebbs and flows, they’re active both in times of peace and war. However, where they truly shine is right after a war ends, during the rebuilding phase. There is a pent-up demand to rebuild structures that suffered damage from the war and the lumber mills go into overdrive in order to quickly meet the demand.
The boards of wood that fantasy sawmills produce go into the interior and exterior of a great many buildings across the world, thus making them crucial when it comes to providing structures for people and businesses. Next to stone, they are one of the most essential components of building a world.
Medieval lumber mills like to be in close proximity to forests for a number of reasons. One main reason is that due to the world’s technological level, they have access to a limited number of ways to transport their goods or receive raw wood. In many medieval-based worlds, horses and wagons are the main means of transport but they can only carry so much.
Pretty much every town and city in the realm was built using wood which originated from fantasy sawmills. This invaluable resource is used in many steps such as framing during the building process. Now multiply that for hundreds and thousands of buildings throughout centuries and you can see how much wood is used and lumber mills play a prominent role throughout that process.
With all the wood used to build structures, fantasy sawmills are one of the most vital things in regard to the world. They help make building easier by standardizing various boards of wood that are used in different steps of the process. They become major players in the medieval economy, using their considerable power to grow and cement their hold in the areas they control. They sway local politicians over to their side by offering them a profitable deal they can’t refuse.
Due to how important they are to the world, bringing fantasy sawmills into yours adds a splash of realism in a fictional world that your audience will appreciate, especially those with a keen interest in learning as much about yours as they can. So what are you waiting for?
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